User:Canucklehead/Incubator/Zero Punctuation

Zero Punctuation is a series of video game reviews created by English comedy writer and video game journalist Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Since the series began in 2007, over 500 episodes have been created, which have been published weekly by internet magazine The Escapist. Episodes typically range from 5 to 6 minutes in length, and provide caustic humour, rapid-fire delivery, visual gags, and critical insight into recently released video games and associated topics.

History
Prior to Zero Punctuation, Croshaw primarily authored content for his blog, Fully Ramblomatic, and would occasionally review video games, often with an emphasis on humor and criticism. In July 2007, Croshaw uploaded two game reviews in video format to YouTube in the same style that would eventually be used for Zero Punctuation: one of the demo of The Darkness for the PlayStation 3, and the other of Fable: The Lost Chapters for the PC. Both were well-received and The Escapist was one of several publishers to offer Croshaw a contract.

The name "Zero Punctuation" refers to the speed of Croshaw's narration. Since its creation, the series has become popular in the gaming community. Video game developers and publishers have occasionally acknowledged Croshaw's reviews of their games, and at least one internet meme has resulted from Zero Punctuation. At the end of every year, Croshaw creates special episodes of Zero Punctuation discussing what he believes were the best and worst games of the year; a practice that started at the end of 2008. He has occasionally dedicated episodes to new technologies or milestones in video gaming rather than games, such as E3 and the coming of the eighth generation of consoles.

From 2009 to 2017, Croshaw authored a column on The Escapist known as Extra Punctuation. These articles were originally published every Tuesday and often supplemented the previous week's review by discussing a certain topic or trend exhibited by that game.

Format


In Zero Punctuation, Croshaw usually reviews a game or games in a highly critical manner using rapid-fire speech delivery accompanied by minimalistic cartoon imagery and animation on a distinctive yellow background, which illustrates what is being said or provides an ironic counterpoint to it. Subtle references or jokes may be inserted to the visuals for comic effect or to add additional context to the narration. His reviews are intended to be humorous with constant usage of puns, analogies, metaphors, and dark humour accompanied by liberal use of profanity. Croshaw usually substitutes the main character or himself with his own avatar, a cartoon man distinguished by a trilby. Another character used often is an imp-like creature (originally meant to resemble a "darkling" from The Darkness) which represents antagonists, animals, or less important characters from a video game. Video games, developers, countries, and other entities are often anthropomorphized as box arts, logos, or flags with arms and legs when they are being addressed directly, or when an action by that entity is being explained. Croshaw often allegorizes jokes, game details, or industry activities with references to, or commentaries on popular culture, politics, and history.

Zero Punctuation opens and closes with a theme song, a rock track composed and performed by Ian Dorsch. The ending credits usually feature humorous notes or other information relating to the review, as well as imagery of characters from the review engaging in slapstick, however in 2014, the videos posted on YouTube omit the credit sequences. Prior to mid-2008, Zero Punctuation featured commercial songs at the beginning and end of each episode, which were usually related to the context of, or ironically at odds with, the game in question, such as The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" and Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover" at the beginning and end, respectively, of his review of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

The series' format has proved inspirational for several other web series, such as the critical and educational series Extra Credits and CGP Grey.

Critical style
Croshaw, more often than not, provides highly critical reviews of games, usually pointing out the faults that he implies other professional reviewers ignore in high-profile releases. He tends to disdain certain overused tropes and conventions in video games, such as quick time events, excessive reliance on motion controls, cover-based shooting, and unbalanced emphases on graphics over story or gameplay. He also disapproves of the over-usage of game franchises, such as Final Fantasy, Assassin's Creed, and Call of Duty.

Croshaw generally does not review certain genres of games, and has openly admitted to not liking most JRPGs, real-time strategy games, fighting games, or simulation games. More recently, he has begun disliking military-themed first-person shooters such as Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, and Battlefield for being what he believes to be extremely similar in gameplay, poor in ethics, and contrived in story, while using the moniker "spunkgargleweewee" to differentiate them from other styles of first-person shooter game. He often criticizes practices of the video games industry which he deems exploitative or otherwise unacceptable to the quality of the medium, often pointing to Electronic Arts as a primary culprit.

Although Zero Punctuation episodes are intended to highlight Croshaw's criticisms of video games, his opinions of games are not universally negative, and any positive feelings towards a game are often explicitly described. He maintains that he is primarily a critic, and opened his review of BioShock by explaining that "nobody likes it when I'm being nice to a game." Despite this, his review of Portal included an admission that he was unable to find any faults in it.

Croshaw cites the work of British television critic and PC Zone journalist Charlie Brooker as the "main inspiration" for his own reviewing style, as well as the writings of Douglas Adams, Sean "Seanbaby" Riley, Victor Lewis-Smith, and Old Man Murray's Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw. He expressed respect towards the late Roger Ebert, noting that he "might one day aspire to being his videogaming equivalent".

Games of the Year
Since 2008, Croshaw has created annual, year-end episodes of Zero Punctuation which enumerate his favorite and least favorite games from that year. As of 2017, the episodes systematically alternate between his selections for the five best, five blandest, and five worst games of the year in ascending order.

For 2008 and 2009, mock "awards" were given for games based arbitrarily defined categories. Starting with 2010, the "awards" format was replaced with ordered lists of his five favorite and least favorite games of the year. For 2015, he added a new category for his choices of the blandest and least innovative games of the year.

In 2013, Croshaw introduced a special "Lifetime Achievement Award for Total Abhorrence" award, which was suggested to have a permanent designee until he reviewed a game of lesser quality than the previous. The inaugural and current holder is Ride to Hell: Retribution, which Croshaw refused to include on the main list, expressing that it was so poor in quality that he considered it "congealed failure" rather than a game.

Reception and Impact
Zero Punctuation has received generally positive reviews, with much of the praise directed towards Yahtzee's wit and style of comedic writing. As of April 2018, the series has an IMDB rating of 7.7 from 379 users. Boing Boing called the series "hilariously cutting ... first legitimate breakout hit from the gaming community in recent memory".

Croshaw claims that he was contacted by game designer Peter Molyneux after his original review of Fable: The Lost Chapters, stating that Molyneux enjoyed the review in spite of the fact that the review repeatedly attributed the game's shortcomings to Molyneux's marketing tactics.

In his 2008 review of The Witcher, Croshaw sarcastically referred to the PC gaming community as "the glorious PC gaming master race", intending to criticize the perceived elitist attitudes in that community. The phrase has since become an internet meme, and has been appropriated and championed by that community. In a 2018 review, Croshaw explained that he regretted calling the community "PC master race" instead of "dick-slurp all-stars," citing a continuation of the behavior that originally prompted the term.

Croshaw's negative review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl in 2008 was poorly received by fans of the game. He claimed to have received a disproportionate amount of hate mail following the review, and dedicated an episode to highlight and respond to various e-mails that he had received in response to it.

In 2009, Croshaw reviewed Prototype by comparing it to InFamous, attempting to demonstrate which of these similar games he liked better. Unable to determine a victor, he jokingly suggested that the developers of each game send him artwork of the opposing game's main character wearing lingerie in order to claim the award. Radical Entertainment and Sucker Punch - the respective developers - unexpectedly complied with the challenge, prompting Croshaw to declare InFamous the winner after judging the quality of the images.

In 2013, Croshaw came under fire after an episode contained a metaphor that was viewed as transphobic. Croshaw agreed with the criticism and apologized, expressing regret towards making the statement. The offending remark was retroactively omitted from the video.

Croshaw was one of the founders of the Mana Bar, a video gaming lounge in Brisbane that operated from 2010 until 2015. Croshaw's popularity through Zero Punctuation contributed to the initial success of the establishment.